Welcome to Vegan Online Academy podcasts – providing food for body and mind. My name is Caroline Harrison and I have a Masters in Education, a Bachelors of Science in Psychology, and a certificate in plant-based nutrition. Today I am going to be talking about not sweating the small stuff.
I’ve seen an interesting trend when observing people trying to transition to a vegan diet, and that is the fixation that some people have on getting every single minute detail of a vegan diet and lifestyle correct from the get-go. Many people have this unrealistic expectation that they will need to rid every aspect of their lives from animal products right from the start. Today I wanted to examine this expectation and look at the bigger picture. So I am going to take these items in turn and discuss their impact.
Red meat, white meat, fish, dairy & eggs
For me these meats, along with dairy and eggs, are the biggest contributors of suffering in our world. They are also the biggest cause of pollution and the biggest threat to your health. 70 billion land animals are slaughtered mercilessly every year to feed us humans, so the number one biggest thing that you can do to help is to stop eating all forms of meat and dairy.
With so many alternative items out there, it is pretty easy to switch these things out over a couple of days or weeks and you are pretty good to go. Even eggs, which many people used to find hard, is much easier due to the introduction of JUST egg replacement.
So in terms of the big picture this is the one to keep in mind.
Honey
I have seen people get absolutely obsessed by honey right at the start of their vegan journey, and because they couldn’t find a way to give up honey they gave up their efforts to go vegan. I call this the ultimate in throwing the baby out with the bath water. Each vegan stops around 100 farmed animals being raised and slaughtered each year, saves over 200,000 gallons of fresh water being wasted (that is a huge amount!), and a 60% saving in greenhouse gas production. That is MASSIVE!
So if you haven’t got the heart of the mindset to give up honey immediately, then that is fine. You can plan to phase it out in due course, or indeed you can be like my husband and continue to eat it. You will still be making an enormous difference in the world and if everyone gave up eating meat, dairy, and eggs – then wow we would be in a different place entirely.
So don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater just because you are a little stuck on honey.
Wine & Beer
I have also seen people become extremely frustrated because they cannot buy vegan wine locally. Once again, they think well if I can’t have wine I can’t do this! My response is to keep drinking your wine. If you can switch over everything else, like beef to beans, cheese to vegan cheese, and dairy yogurt to coconut yogurt, but you can’t find the right wine. Then don’t sweat the small stuff. Yes non-vegan wine isn’t ideal, but let’s keep it real. What is worse: not eating animals or dairy products and drinking non-vegan wine, or eating animals and dairy products and drinking non-vegan wine? I hope you get what I am trying to say here. In due course you will find replacement wines and beers that you like. And as you learn more you might even be encouraged to subscribe to a vegan wine delivery service, or search out particular vegan wines and then buy them in bulk when you can find them. But at all times, keep the bigger picture in mind.
Shoes & Belts
Another area people get fixated on is the idea of having to throw out and replace all of their leather goods at once. I can’t go vegan because I have a leather sofa is something I have heard people worrying over. But my answer is absolutely to say, do not worry about this kind of stuff. Focus on the big picture and what you can do easily. As time passes you and you need to replace a pair of leather shoes, then buy non-leather ones. Likewise with your coach, replace it when it needs to be replaced or when you no longer want to sit on it. But don’t think you absolutely have to throw all this stuff our right away. After all the money has already been spent, you can’t take it back now, so in many ways it is the environmentally conscious thing to do to use things until they are worn out. I personally found that about a year into being vegan I couldn’t bring myself to wear leather shoes anymore. So that is when I began to really research and look for alternatives. You can do the same thing. The most important thing to figure out is your main food items first like swapping out your Sunday roast from chicken dinner to tofurky. And finding which non-dairy milk you like best. Sure some people purge everything at once, but you don’t have to do this, especially if the thought of doing so means that you don’t want to go vegan anymore.
Backyard chickens
If you have backyard hens please do not think that you have to give up eating their eggs straight away (if you can do this awesome). But Once again, if you can stop eating and drinking all dairy products and switch to plant-based ones, and if you are able to stop eating all forms of meat then my goodness you are doing an AMAZING job! If everyone in the world ate like this then we would be living in a different planet. You can transition yourself away from your backyard eggs gradually in the months and years to come as you learn more and more about how unhealthy eggs are for you and the benefits to your lovely chickens of allowing them to keep and consume their eggs. If even listening to me saying this sentence makes your blood boil, then cool, cool, cool. If you never get there with your backyard eggs then that is okay. Once again, don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Everything you can do to save animals and save water and greenhouse gas emissions is the right thing to do.
Cosmetics and household cleaners
Many cosmetics and household cleaners contain animal products or are tested on animals. Neither of these things are desirable. But neither is getting so stressed out about this whole vegan thing that you go back to eating meat because you can’t do it all. My advice here is to look out for alternatives as you are shopping and as things run out you can try out new things. It took me absolutely ages to find a decent shampoo that wasn’t tested on animals and didn’t contain any animal ingredients. In fact it took me nearly two years. And several times I had to go back to my old shampoo because the new bottle I had tried was ruining my hair or causing an allergic reaction. However, I didn’t berate myself, I knew this was all a process, and eventually I found a fantastic shampoo and conditioner set. It also took me ages to get a decent mascara that didn’t rub all over my face. But I got there eventually. As you will too.
As you can hear, my theme here is Focus on the Bigger Picture. The biggest actions that you take are to cut meat, dairy, and eggs out of your diet. These products cause the biggest scale of suffering. As I stated at the beginning 70 billion land animals are slaughtered globally each year. If you stop participating in this industry by boycotting their products, you are going to make the biggest difference. With all of the alternative products that are now available in supermarkets boycotting these items has never been easier.
Once you have mastered this aspect of your life you can then start working your way through the other items. Whatever you do, don’t quit being vegan just because you still have a leather belt, or can’t find a replacement for your honey containing granola bar just yet. You will get there. Start at the beginning and put one foot in front of the other and keep walking in the direction of your ambitions. And know that there is no such thing as the perfect vegan, there is just all of us being the best vegan that we can be. And as more and more people start walking along this path, the easier it will become for those that follow us. So let’s shine that light brightly and show everyone how easy it is to be vegan.
For help to start your own vegan journey log onto veganonlineacademy.com and register for one of our courses today.
